Ethiopian cargo plane crashes into Lake Victoria; crew slightly injured

By GEOFFREY MULEME, Associated Press Writer

ENTEBBE, Uganda, Mar 20, 2005 (AP) — An Ethiopian Airlines cargo plane crashed into Lake Victoria near Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport while attempting to land on Saturday, an airport official said. The five crew members suffered minor injuries.

The Boeing 707 plane was en route from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Lome, Togo, when it requested permission to land at Entebbe, 10 kilometers (8 miles) outside of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, said Maj. Moses Rwakitare, the airport’s top official.

“The cargo plane crash-landed on the second attempt. It had earlier overshot the runway when attempting to land,” Rwakitare said.

The five crew members were rescued from the lake and taken to a hospital with minor injuries, he said.

Entebbe airport’s main runway ends at the shore of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake.

Neither Rwakitare nor Ethiopian airlines employees in Kampala could explain why the plane attempted to land in Uganda.

An Antonov An-24 cargo plane crashed in January after taking off from Entebbe, killing the six-man Russian crew. That plane crashed on land while attempting to return to the airport after two of the plane’s four engines failed.